Stap 3 van 6

The Falcons

Fig. 2 – Statuette of the god Re – Louvre – [E 5799](https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010017985) — Fig. 2 – Statuette of the god Re – Louvre – E 5799

Let’s take a closer look at the falcons. There are two of them, one on each side of the pectoral with one claw clasping circular hieroglyphs.

From the earliest times, falcons seem to have been worshiped in Egypt and they were thought to represent great cosmic powers. According to this view, the eyes of a falcon represented the sun and the moon, and the speckled feathers underneath might have been seen as the stars. Many falcon deities existed throughout Egypt, and one of them was the sun god Re. He was often depicted as a human with the head of a falcon. You can see an example of this depiction in Figure 2.

The sun god Re was one of Egypt’s most important deities. Though he is possibly not as old as the falcon god Horus, he was a very ancient god.See: Wilkinson, Richard H., The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient
Egypt (New York, 2003). The falcons on this pectoral are symbols of the sun god, and the hieroglyphs in their grasp mean ‘encircled’. With this, they are declaring the solar deity’s supreme power over the universe.See: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pectoral and Necklace of Sithathoryunet with the Name of Senwosret II.

We have just seen the falcons and the hieroglyphs in their claws, but we have not yet looked at what the other claw is leaning against. Let’s find out!